NEW YORK—For Asian art aficionados who’d rather not gallery-hop throughout a 20-block stretch in the Upper East Side during Asia Week, the Asia Art Fair has begun, or rather, returned.
The Asia Art Fair unofficially replaces the New York Arts of Pacific Asia Show by Caskey Lees, which ran from 1995 to 2012 until it lost its venue. The majority of the exhibitors at the Asia Art Fair had exhibited at the now defunct show.
Paul Anavian, the fair’s art director and dealer of ancient Near Eastern and Islamic art, said he was happy that the fair offers an alternative to “taking a taxi from gallery to gallery,” adding that he prefers the current location on East 73rd Street to the West 34th Street location the Arts of Pacific Asia Show had used.
“Uptown is much more elegant and fashionable,” he said.
Occupying three floors of the posh Bohemian National Hall, the Asia Art Fair makes it convenient to browse for art and art experts.
Among the 27 exhibitors, the variety of art on offer is vast. Besides the expected Chinese and Japanese antiques, which are in abundance in all Asian art shows, the Fair also has contemporary Vietnamese and Iranian painting, handmade jewelry, carpets and textiles, and works of art from less familiar places like Java and Burma. Exhibitors’ close quarters makes it hard for the visitor not to discover something new.
The show also draws a wide mix of non-New York galleries from across America, such as The Jade Dragon (Michigan), Stallion Hill (Connecticut), and Robyn Buntin (Hawaii)—which means plenty of unexpected finds from quality private collections.
Lectures related to Asian art and culture will be available on Sunday and Monday and is included in the admission of $20. The Asia Art Fair runs March 14–18. theasiaartfair.com
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